GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



c!ropi)ing, and they are so arranged that 

 each dish will water tAvo yards. For fifty 

 laying hens tliere ought to be about half a 

 dozen nests. You will probably never get 

 over forty eggs a day, even wiien they are 

 doing their best, and this would give seven 

 eggs for each nest. Down in my Florida 

 home 1 frecjuently have ten or eleven eggs 

 laid iu one good-sized nest — sometimes a 

 tlozen. These nests can be made in long 

 boxes of a dozen each, set right across where 

 the partition fence comes — six nests on one 

 side of the partition fence and six on the 

 other. 



When it is time to take the eggs to mar- 

 ket, a light wagon or auto (as you choose 

 or can afford) simply runs around the gran- 

 ary and picks up the eggs and they are 

 loaded for market in five or ten minutes, or 

 may be less. Grit and oyster-shells, as well 

 as water, are furnished in the same way. 

 Green food, grass, and insects, the fowls 

 get by going out on their free range, giving 

 them a narrow yard, or perhaps a three- 

 cornered yard, an eighth of a mile long if 

 you can afford it. 



You may suggest that they will lay in 

 the bushes rather than in the yard. After 

 testing the matter for half a dozen years I 

 find that my strain of Leghorns and Butter- 

 cups as a rule ^nefer to lay in a pleasant 

 and convenient nest under shelter rather 

 than to go out into the bushes. The pullets, 

 when they begin to lay, sometimes will steal 

 a nest or drop their eggs on the ground; 

 but they soon get over it, and get over to 

 where the other hens lay. If you decide 

 that you want their roost placed under shel- 

 ter, a shelter or double roof can be easily 

 fixed across one of the division fences, so 

 as to make your open-front house cover 

 two yards. In this case, if you sweep up 

 the droppings under the roost every morn- 

 ing, as we have been doing every morning 

 for two or three years past, very little time 



Fig. 3 shows about the plan I have decided on 

 for nesting-places. I am sure it is hest to give the 

 fowls a secluded nfst, free from interruptions, and 

 where they will not be frightened by visitors who go 

 through the yard; and if egg-eating should get 

 started I would have the nests so that they can be 

 made quite dark. The engraver has made a part of 

 the nest-boxes of wire netting. This will be espe- 

 cially desirable in hot climates like Florida and Tex- 

 as. I prefer to have the nests up, say, 2 to 2% 

 feet from the ground so as to avoid the necessity of 

 stooping over. 



is required. If you do this, I do not think 

 that, as a rule, you will be troubled with 

 vermin of any sort. By the way, I would 

 have this "inner court" around the granary 

 ahsulutehj secure from rats, mice, skunks, 

 or other prowling nocturnal visitors. Until 

 this last season I supposed that one-inch 

 poultry-netting would keep out rats. We 

 ha\e no mice in Florida. Either they have 



Pig. 4 shows the plan of gathering the eggs. The 

 picture shows a little door for each nest. Now, this 

 on some accounts would be very desirable; but it 

 will be quite a saving in time and labor to have one 

 long door that will cover the whole six nests. When 

 this is raised up the eggs will all be gathered very 

 quickly ; and I am not sure but I prefer to have the 

 nests a little lower down so we can raise a part of 

 the roof instead of the doors when gathering the 

 eggs. The pi.ture shovvs the egg-basket standing on 

 the ground. People of my age, I am sure, will ob- 

 ject to this, because it necessitates stooping over. 



never got there or they do not like the local- 

 ity. Well, even if We do not have mice I 

 found young i-ats getting through the inch- 

 mesh netting; therefore I would have the 

 first two feet of this inner yard made of %- 

 inch netting, or, if necessary, of half-inch - 

 mesh wire cloth, and I would have Ihis go 

 down in the ground far enough so that no 

 animals would dig under it. One of our 

 government bulletins recommends bending 

 the netting and carrying it horizontally six 

 inches. Skunks and other animals that dig 

 under, always dig straight down close to 

 the fence. When they find the wire netting 

 runs out horizontally, saj- six inches below 

 the surface, they will probably give up the 

 job. Under no circumstances must rats and 

 other wild animals be permitted to get into 

 the granary ; and in order to have things 

 neat and tidy I would never permit a chick- 

 en, little or big, to have access to this inner 

 circle. Be sure that nolhing gets in during 

 the night time. You will need to have a 

 gate to shut up the roadway nights, say one 

 running uyj at least two feet. 



NOW A WORD ABOUT SITTING HENS. 



I have already mentioned one of Stod- 

 dard's articles that I said was worth ten dol- 

 lars to me. It was because of the idea it 

 contained as follows: 



I mentioned having four yards out of tlie 

 sixteen unoccupied the greater part of the 

 year. Su];i;ose in going aroimd you find a 

 silling hen. Just pick her up and put her 



